


The Mummy AU

by debvors



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: F/F, Winn is an idiot, kara is a bisexual mess, lena is over confident and we love it, mike is annoying in this story, no superpowers, sam will be lena's bff till the end of time, she also swears 24/7, the mummy - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-11
Updated: 2021-01-01
Packaged: 2021-03-10 17:28:51
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 8,227
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28010931
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/debvors/pseuds/debvors
Summary: HAMUNAPTRA, CITY OF THE DEAD, EGYPT, 1290 BC. High priest Imhotep suffers the Hom Dai for his love affair with Pharaoh Seti I's mistress. He's kept under strict surveillance by the Medjai, sworn to prevent Imhotep's return.CAIRO, EGYPT, 1926. Alex Danvers gives an intricate box to her sister, Kara Danvers. They discover a map leading to Hamunaptra, which was discovered three years earlier by an adventurer: Lena Luthor.Together they'll try to unravel the mystery of Hamunaptra, not knowing they could discover more than History.ORThe Mummy AU
Relationships: Alex Danvers/Kelly Olsen, Kara Danvers/Lena Luthor
Comments: 14
Kudos: 61





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is an AU based on the 1999 remake of the movie The Mummy from 1932. 
> 
> I was inspired by this tumblr post of Stephanie Pepper artwork: https://browsethestacks.tumblr.com/post/636206776543494144
> 
> I will follow the key figures of the movie but some changes will be made to fit the characters personalities/personal stories. 
> 
> (I may be adding more characters in the tags as the story progress) 
> 
> I really love this movie and I hope you'll enjoy reading about it. Take care.

_Hamunaptra—Egypt, 1924_

Colonel Durand was a fucking coward, one Lena so dearly wishes a stray bullet would hit. He was gone, leaving his Legionnaires at Lena’s charge and under the mercy of thousands of Arabians soldiers. They are charging at them on their horses, ready to make their bodies meet the sand of this lost Egyptian city. It isn’t a bad scenery, but Lena has things to do and none include her dead body ate by desert bugs.

“Looks like you got a promotion.”

“I hope you won’t run away this time, Mike, huh?” spits Lena, assault rifle already in place over her shoulder.

“Your courage really inspires me.”

Mike’s voice is dripping with sarcasm and Lena rolls her eyes, instructing the Legions to get ready to fire. They need their enemies closer for their shots to be more effective. The horses could turn into an advantage. She’s about to give the order when Mike scrambles to his feet and starts running for his life. She would like to say she loses a bit of respect for him, but Lena never felt any toward this counterfeited cover boy. Plus, she has men under her commands for the next few seconds.

“Fire!”

Her first shot hits a soldier in the middle of the chest, the second the leg of a horse, for this one she feels a little bad, the third is just for show, it’s obvious she needs to get the fuck out of here. Lena runs away from the low wall as fast as she can, trading the uncooperative assault rifle with a pair of guns she had tucked at the back of her pants. She’s able to incapacitate the soldiers closer to her before entering once again in the unknown Egyptian city. She sees Mike from afar. The coward appears to be sneaking over some ruins, probably looking for her dead body. Lena bites the inside of her cheek, speeding up her cadence. The soldiers are _close_.

“Run for fuck’ sake!” screams Lena, looking over her shoulder rapidly. “Go inside the temple!”

It takes Mike a few seconds to step into motion. He runs clumsily toward the small entrance of the temple, it's half buried, but Lena thinks they can fit both of their bodies without being too bothered. She nearly smiles when Mike finally gets to the entrance and starts pushing the heavy door, he’s impressively effective and- wait… He’s planning on letting Lena out! _The little shit_. 

“Don’t you dare close that door before me!”

Mike looks up and has the decency to look a bit remorseful under all that fear before sealing the temple.

Lena’s hands collide with the rough door harshly, struggling to maintain her body upward after the run of her life. Her breathing is heavy, she’s sweating profusely, and the sanded air doesn’t provide as much oxygen as her body demands. She’s going to burry this stupid man alive one day, but first she needs to get the hell out of here.

Unfortunately for Lena, Mike little treason had allowed the soldiers to catch up to her. Bullets whistle above her head, lodging themselves in the rock, before she’s able to see the soldiers. There are five of them, heavily armed, and to cap it all off they are riding horses. She runs again a beat later, her combat boots hitting soundly on the hard sanded ground. Lena’s trying to maneuver through the ruins, taking unexpected turns as to cut the horses’ pace. She’s successful in her ministrations for a short period during wish she realizes how royally fucked she is. Lena ends up in one of the ruin’s open space putting her at the mercy of anybody. There is nowhere to hide, and Lena doesn’t think she’ll be able to sprint once more.

She’s trapped. 

The five soldiers ultimately align before her, rifles charged and ready to go through her mortal body. Lena wonders if she should let herself fall on her knees, turning her death into some kind of dramatic denouement, but she doesn’t want it to look like she’s begging, so she stays upright. She closes her eyes. She’s not ready to see the face of Death yet and neither are the bullets, apparently.

She opens one careful eye: the soldiers are still, almost petrified, looking at something over Lena’s head. The horses neigh suddenly, putting their front hoofs in the air before their masters hurriedly direct them away from the place. Lena’s left alone with a fucking monster behind her, apparently. After a short internal debate, she turns around reluctantly.

At first, she sees nothing except the chest of the statue she had apparently stopped in front of, but a few steps back allow her to see it’s actually an Anubis statue. A mean looking one. Lena studies it closely once her eyes settle on it, it’s almost like she’s drawn to it. The statue isn’t in a great shape and parts of Anubis’s jaw are missing but it remains impressive. She’s about to reach out to feel the texture when a wave of sand erupts from the ground whipping her across the face, Lena tries to sidestep to avoid it when another wave hits her from behind. Screams are heard and Lena could swear they came from the moving sand as it keeps coming at her from every angle. She falls on the ground, heartbeat racing as she tries to get up and leave this place for good. She’s pretty sure she looks like she has just seen a ghost, and she probably had.

Lena gets up and runs as far away as she can. She’s slow, her shoes are knocking the ground at nearly every step, and she’s two minutes away from passing out. She reaches the border of the site, watches the desert stretching before her; it’s definitely better than to stay in this cursed place.

Lena casts one last glance at the ruins and catches a group of men dressed in black at the top of a dune. They aren’t Arabians soldiers; she has never seen people dressed like that in her life, and frankly she doesn’t give a fuck. She wants to leave and forget whatever shit she saw there. That’s all she wants… and maybe a glass of whisky.

**

_Cairo—Egypt, 1926_

Rows and rows of towering bookshelves surround Kara as she clumsily stands at the top of a ladder. She avoids looking at the ground as she often meets it as soon as she does. She’s not afraid of heights, she’s just particularly clumsy and Cat Grant asking her to put away a hundred of old heavy books isn’t helping. Plus, some books aren’t at their assigned place like this book about Tuthmosis, it’s supposed to be on the opposite shelf, one Kara is absolutely too far away from. She knows realistically she can’t reach the section without moving the ladder, it would lead to an inevitable fall, but she believes her body has a lot of hidden potential. After all, she does have an abnormally fast metabolism and build muscles pretty fast, she’s also pretty strong so maybe she can stretch her body a bit more than humanly possible? The answer is no, she can’t, and she comes to this conclusion half way in the air as her body collapsed with the heavy bookshelves.

What happens is the destruction of half the stacks. Books from centuries ago lay on the ground, painfully pinned on the ground by the many fallen bookshelves. Of course, Cat Grant is quick to enter the room and Kara gets the sermon of her lifetime, being reminded that her boss is only doing a favor to her adoptive parents and that she’d rather have someone else: “ _Somebody who can walk two feet without causing a fire, Kiera_.” That is to say, Kara nearly burst into tears in front of her boss, but miraculously restrains herself until she’s in the storage room.

“Kara? Are you crying again?” asks the muffled voice of Alex from outside the door.

“Am not,” mumbles back Kara, wiping her nose with the sleeve of her sweater.

“Sounds an awful lot like it…”

“Strange…”

“Come on Kara, I have something exciting to show you. It’ll cheer you up!”

Kara doesn’t come out straight away, mostly because she likes being stubborn for no reason but also because she’s a bit ashamed of the number of times her sister has found her crying. She loves her job, loves being an Egyptologist, but it wasn’t exactly how she had pictured her life going. She thought she would see more of the country and less old papyrus and greedy tourists, but it was still a job, even if she acted more like a librarian than anything.

Alex is waiting for her, leaned against the wall in the hallway and suspiciously looking around her like she always does. She doesn’t trust anybody except Kara, and while she appreciates the sentiment sometimes, she thinks her sister goes a little too far. She’s cradling something in her hand, a sort of little box shaped like a hexagon. Some inscriptions seem carved into it, but Kara can’t really tell from where she is.

Alex notices her interest with a satisfied smile before getting them to the Ramesseum. The room is awfully dark despite the sun rising high outside, the only lights come from the flickering torches at the very end of the gallery. It’s filled with sarcophagus, treasures and plunders from the Middle Kingdom and Kara has to slap away Alex's curious hands more than once before they settle at the edge of a tomb. 

“So, I found it near Thebes…”

“Thebes? What were you doing there?”

“Nothing you need to know,” quickly dismisses Alex. “What matter is this box which could- _is_ , important. I feel it.”

It’s not the first time Alex brings her “artefacts” she found in questionable places to study, but they always end up being trinkets Cat Grant makes fun of. This, however, looks promising. The box is larger than expected, covered in hieratic and hieroglyphs, the lead suggesting a hidden mechanism meant to open it.

Kara lets her fingers skim over the irregular surfaces, moving cautiously the various little slats: it’s a puzzle. After a particular turn of one slat, the lead unfolds itself, forming an 8 branches star and delivering a folded piece of golden papyrus.

Alex nudges Kara’s shoulder, eyes shining with excitement. Maybe she has found something… Kara unfolds delicately the papyrus revealing an ancient map. Various Egyptian figures are linked by straight lines and geometrical figures.

“Alex, you _definitely_ found something,” says Kara, her face breaking in the biggest smile of her life.

“See the cartouche there, it’s definitely the seal of Seti the First,” excitedly says Kara pointing at a dark drawing at the bottom of the map.

“Perhaps…”

Cat Grant isn’t convinced, she’s studying the map from left to right, up and down, even feeling the texture of the papyrus. Kara knows she will have to admit it’s legit, there is no doubt there. She looks over at Alex who shrugs, arms crossed. She doesn’t know a thing about Egypt and Kara’s sure it goes over her head who Seti the First could be.

“It’s already dated, or rather I did. And it’s almost four thousand years old and,” Kara hesitates, wiping her hands on her skirt, she doesn’t to be considered crazy, “the hieratic it’s… it’s Hamunaptra.”

“Don’t be ridiculous, Kiera!” quickly says Cat Grant. “It’s a myth and even if it wasn’t, we are scholars, not treasures hunter.”

“The Hamunaptra? As in the City of The Dead?” interferes Alex, arms uncrossing.

“Yes,” answers Kara, amused by her sister’s sudden enthusiasm. “The place where the early Pharaohs were said to have hidden the wealth of Egypt.”

“Everybody knows the story: it’s a question of underground treasure chamber, and the city was rigged to sink into the sand at the Pharaohs command.”

“Yeah, well, all we know is that it mysteriously vanished around 2,134 B. C,” concedes Kara.

“Do not bother yourself with this,” commands Cat Grant, but she keeps studying the map by a candlelight. “It’s a fairy tale hopeless people believe in.”

Alex is about to protest, hand resting on top of Cat Grant’s desk when the map catches fire. She had held it too close to the candlelight and now a _four thousand years old_ document was disappearing, and she didn’t care! She throws the map away negligently as to not burn herself, and Alex hastily stop it from disintegrating.

“You burned half the map!” cries Alex, anger in her voice.

“It’s better this way. Many men have wasted their lives in the foolish pursuit of Hamunaptra. Nobody has ever found it, and a few came back alive. I don’t think you should get yourselves mixed up in this nonsense.”

Cat Grant reaches for the box, but Kara angrily snatches it away. Her boss gives her a surprised look, Kara gulps fearing an attack, but Cat Grant only motioned for them to leave.

Kara nearly runs.

**

_Cairo Prison—Egypt, 1926_

“You told me you found the box in Thebes!?”

“Well, I may have lied…” nonchalantly says Alex. “I lie to everybody; I don’t understand why you’re so surprised.”

“I’m your sister!” hisses Kara, looking uncomfortably around.

“I fail to see the link.”

Kara grumbles something before entering Cairo’s prison. It’s a hellhole, it smells like dog shit and inhumane incarceration conditions. There are at least three hundred men piled in small cells falling victims to the beating sun. They are screaming profanities clearly aimed at them. Maybe she shouldn’t have worn this dress today. She anxiously pushes her glasses up the bridge of her nose as the warden opens the door of the visits room.

It’s not exactly a room more a cube of concrete missing a roof. Empty cubicles align before them, protected by large bars.

“What is he in prison for?” asks Kara to the warden.

“ _She_ ’s here because she was looking a little too much for a good time.”

Kara does not have the time to comment on the change of pronoun when the inside door of one cubicle open brusquely. A woman with wild hair and dirt all over her body appears, she’s chained and shoved by the guards, putting her on her knees. She’s wearing a previously white sleeveless shirt and brown khaki pants; bruises are visible on her pale arms. It’s obvious she’s been here for a long time; her hairs are excessively long and judging by the number of old bruises on her body she has been here for a long time.

Her jaw is sporting a purple hematoma which makes Kara winces inside. She can’t really say if she finds the woman attractive under all this dirt and the smell of the place, but her eyes are definitely gorgeous: two pool of green where grey and blue undertones fight for dominance. Kara has never seen anything like it.

“And who are these lovely visitors?” 

Unlike her words, her tone is far from being friendly, in fact the woman looks like she would rather go back with the other prisoners than talk with them. Kara feels Alex tensing up behind her, but she thankfully stays still.

“I’m Kara and this is my sister Alex. We are here because we found your box?”

“My box?” frowns the woman, seating more comfortably on her heels.

“Yes, my sister uh… she found it.”

“Your sister, huh?” suspiciously asks the woman. “I know her face from somewhere…”

Kara catches Alex anxiously fidgeting and looking anywhere else but the cubicle.

“Yes! I remember you! You are the bastard who robbed me that night!”

One guard hit the prisoner at the back of her head and she curses under her breath.

“Well, this is why we are here!” responds Alex, but her voice trembles.

“No.”

“No?” incredulously says Kara, redirecting the woman's attention on her.

“You aren’t here for the box; you came here to ask me about Hamunaptra.”

The gasp escaping Kara’s mouth is a bit dramatic to be perfectly honest, but a prison isn’t exactly the place to talk about this. She checks for the warden but he’s busy surveying the prisoners through the slightly ajar door. The guards, for their parts, don’t seem to care. The woman seems amused to have started such a reaction, making Kara feels unreasonably frustrated.

“How do you know the box pertains to Hamunaptra?”

“Where do you think I found it? I was there.”

“Be careful Kara, she could be lying,” warns Alex, encouraging Kara to take a step back.

“You swear?” asks Kara, ignoring her sister’s complaints.

“Every damn day.”

“No, I mean…”

“I know what you mean. Yes. I was there. Seti’s place, the City of the Dead.”

“What did you find? What did you see?”

“I found sand. I saw death,” deadpans the woman, almost bored. She clearly wants to put an end to this impromptu interview, but Kara’s not done yet. She quickly leans closer to the prisoner as to not be heard by the warden or stopped by her sister.

“Could you tell me the exact location? How to get there?”

“You want to know?”

The woman seems genuinely surprised, as if Kara was just there to collect information for her thesis. She nods, coming closer to the bars.

“Yes.”

“You really want to know?” nearly whispers the woman, prompting Kara to leans her face right up to the bars, nervously.

“Yes,” whispers back Kara, as the woman comes closer.

And the woman kisses her, hard and full on the lips.

“Then get me the hell out of here!” shouts the prisoner as one guard hits the back of her head and the other forcibly gets her back inside.

Alex is by her side in a minute, looking worriedly at her, but she’s too stunned to register anything. She should have seen it coming. She should have because she had noticed the woman’s eyes shifting to her lips, noticed the devilish spark in her green eyes, but she had ignored it. And she doesn’t know why.

“Where are they taking her?” asks Alex when it’s obvious Kara won’t function normally for a while.

“To be hanged,” simply responds the warden, showing his yellow teeth in a smile.

“Hanged?!” exclaims Kara.

“Yes. It looks like she had a bit too much fun.”

“But she’s a woman! You don’t hang women prisoners here!”

“And this is a men’s prison,” counters the warden. “There is a reason she’s here. This woman has nothing of a lady, she’s a man in disguise. She swears like a sailor and behaves like a drunkard, she’ll be put to death and that’s it.”

“There might be something we can do to prevent this,” reasons Alex, putting a comforting hand on Kara’s back.

“I’ve been waiting for this day since the moment she set a foot in this enclosure. I would pay one hundred pounds to see her hanged.”

Hundreds of smelly prisoners are staring down onto the gallows as the hangman’s noose is draped tightly over the woman’s neck. They are shouting incoherent sentences, the only goal being to speed up the process. It looks like everyone has been waiting for her to be finally on this makeshift apparatus. It makes Kara uncomfortable to see people cheering for someone's death, no-one should be down there losing their life because of somebody's judgment. No-one will ever be fair enough to make such choices.

The warden guides them to the balcony above the gallows; they are the only women here, and it’s easy to feel it. The prisoners roaring has died down as they attention shift to them, they aren’t human here; they are meat.

Kara and Alex seat tightly together on a small bench while the warden sits on his wooden throne next to Kara. It’s obvious he doesn’t care about the repercussion of this act. In fact, Kara’s pretty sure the woman wasn’t supposed to be hanged today, if never. But then again, she had kissed Kara in a time where homosexuality is punishable by death. The problem is Kara needs her. With the map half burnt, they only knew half of the journey leading to Hamunaptra.

“I will give you two hundred pounds to spare her life.”

The warden looks at her unimpressed, motioning for the hangman to proceed.

“Three hundred,” outbids Alex, and Kara send her a thankful smile.

The new silence allows the woman to hear their bids, she looks more confused than anything by their doings. It makes Kara wonders if she really cares to die. The warden gauges them briefly, but Kara can see they have failed to catch his interest.

“Any last requests?” asks the hangman.

“Yeah, I’d like for you to let me go,” answers the convicted woman with a smile.

The hangman rolls his eyes and grabs the lever to the trapdoor with both hands. They have to act now!

“Five hundred pounds!” desperately yells Kara, glasses falling down her nose.

The warden motions for the hangman to stop. He’s interested, maybe a bit too much judging by his sly smile.

“And what else?”

He puts his greasy hand on Kara’s leg and Alex slaps him behind the head. He reflexively retracts his hand, an angry frown replacing his smug expression, as he shows to the hangman to conclude his task. Kara screamed protestation is deadened by the clamors of the prisoners as the woman drops through the hole, the rope paying out making her body snap at the end of ite. The woman wiggles then, alive.

“Well, who would have thought we were in for such a spectacle?” asks the warden, weirdly pleased. “Now we watch her strangle to death.”

This is torture. The woman’s neck is aggravated by her fall, and it’s rubbing painfully against the thick rope as she tries to stay alive. Alex grabs Kara’s hand, forcing her to look away. Kara stares intently at Alex, trying to convey a message she’s not able to interpret.

“We have to tell him,” murmurs Kara.

“You can’t be serious he…”

“It’s our only chance,” decides Kara.

“He knows the location to Hamunaptra.”

The warden spins around, facing her with wide eyes. He briefly checks his guards aren’t able to hear them before giving her his entire attention.

“You are lying.”

“I would never!”

Kara can hear the woman choking and see her turning several shades of red. She does not have any time left; they need to act quick.

“You’re telling me this worthless piece of shit; godless daughter of a pig knows where to find The City of The Dead?”

“I swear, and if you cut her down, we will give you ten percent.”

“Fifty percent.”

“Twenty.”

“Forty.”

“For fu-fuck sake, hu-hurry!” yells the hanged woman, eyes red and veins popping.

“Twenty-five percent and not one farthing more!”

The warden smile and shouts for the hangman to cut the rope. The woman falls on the ground harshly on all four, she gapes for air and throws the loose rope away.

“It was a pleasure to do business with you.”

Alex makes a disgusted sound as the warden and the guards leave. Kara looks down at the woman who catches her gaze. She smiles lightly at Kara and Kara looks away biting her lips only to find Alex looking at her weirdly.

“What?” defensively asks Kara.

“Nothing, nothing… Let’s get out of here the smell is truly horrible.”

Kara knows her sister will get to her later, but for now she lets it slide. She needs to take a three hours bath.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kara, Alex & Winn meet up with the infamous Lena Luthor and her friend Sam at Giza Port to board the barge following the Nile. As they discover the existence of an American competition and assassins in dark robes it becomes obvious that they’re not welcomed to The City of The Dead.

_Giza Port, Cairo—Egypt_

The port of Giza is incredibly loud, filled with Arabian’s dialects neither Kara nor Alex can understand. Makeshift shops are crammed along the docks while their owners try to sell cheap souvenirs to gullible tourists.

Kara surveys the area with a smile, a cartwheel hat protecting her eyes from the sun. She’s able to see the magnificent pyramids from across the Nile, a mysterious wonder of architecture full of secrets and promised treasures. It makes her think of their upcoming journey, one that will change them and the world forever. It’s a story Kara will tell on her deathbed to her grandchildren, one they’d have already heard a thousand times before but still like to hear.

“So, where is the mysterious woman?”

Winn is pressed against her side, arm hooked with hers as he eagerly looks everywhere but in front of him. Alex wasn’t overjoyed at first of their friend tagging along, he often ended up in weird situations where fighting was too often involved. But he also had the knack to find and notice things no one else did, something essential for their quest.

“She’s supposed to meet us before the boat, that is, if she doesn’t stand us up,” drawls Alex, back heavy with too many bags.

“She would?” asks Winn, eyes wide and naïve.

“Well, she didn’t strike us as a very truthful individual,” explains Kara. “In fact, she seemed to tend to a sort of depraved behavior to be honest. And, God, her appearance, she looked filthy, and she was so rude! Yeah, I didn’t like her one bit.”

“I see you already made a good impression on your new friends!”

The owner of the voice is a tall woman with long brown hair and sparkly eyes leaned on a handcart with a cigarette in one hand. She’s looking at Kara with amusement and something like recognition that Kara cannot reciprocate. She’s wearing a long coat despite the warm weather, with a half-opened blouse underneath it and pants that don’t fit her figure.

“And who are you exactly?” accusingly asks Alex, shoulders squared in a defensive posture.

“I’m Sam, Lena Luthor’s friend… the rude woman?”

“Who said I’m rude? I’m an angel.”

A woman appears from behind the hand cart, laying a hand on Sam’s shoulder. Kara quickly identifies her as the prisoner, or at least what remains of her previous doings because she has transformed. Her hairs are gathered in a high ponytail, her skin is scrubbed clean, the old bruise on her jaw now like a passing shadow on her flawless skin. She’s wearing pants, just like her friend, or rather a suit; one with tight brown pants and a vest. She looks expensive, suspiciously so. Lena’s eyes eventually settle on Kara and the blonde is displeased to see her purse her painted red lips before looking at Kara’s friends.

“And what is that?” asks Lena, pointing at Winn like he’s some strange creature.

“It’s a man, Lena. They did not go extinct in five days love,” laughs Sam as she takes a drag from her cigarette and Kara hates her for it.

“That’s a shame,” smirks Lena.

“It really is…”

“Alex!”

“What?”

“Winn is literally right here,” scolds Kara putting an arm around her friend’s shoulder.

“Actually, I don’t mind. We will go instinct eventually.”

“Anyway, Ms. Luthor, can you look me in the eye and guarantee me this is not tome sort of flimflam? Because if it’s the case then I-”

“It’s not,” interrupts Lena, eyes hard and unmoving. “My colonel found that map in an ancient fortress, and the whole troops believed in it. So much that we marched halfway across Libya and into Egypt to find that city, without orders! Mostly because he was an incompetent piece of shit, but that’s beside the point. We marched and when we finally arrived, there was only blood and sand. Now let’s get into this boat.”

Kara doesn’t have the time to respond, Lena is already taking her bags and boarding on the boat. Sam has the decency to look apologetic for the lack of manners of her comrade, but it doesn’t make up for it.

“And I thought I was dramatic,” mumbles Winn. 

Sam laughs once more before offering to help them with their bags. Kara utters a rushed “thank you” before pushing Winn toward the boat, controlling the urge to roll her eyes.

“How did they settle?”

“Fine, I mean the blonde didn’t look ecstatic, but for the rest it was fine.”

“Finally, somebody saw your crooked nature!”

Sam hits Lena’s back, letting a fit of giggles escape her. Lena had missed Sam, their easy banters and her cheeky remarks. She heard little of them in prison. It was mostly misogynistic bullshit and made-up curse words. She learned a bit of Arabian at the end, so maybe spending one and a half year in prison was worth it. Here, on the small, illuminated terrace of the boat, drink in hand, she could forget she was at the end of a rope five days ago.

“So, how are you feeling about going back to ‘Hell on Earth’?”

“Good. I mean I’m not excited or anything but this Kara Danvers, she’s an Egyptologist, she has the information we didn’t have the first time. If this city really exists, the treasure must be real too.”

“I see, it’s all motivated by self-interest then,” says Sam with an innocent smile, but Lena’s no fool.

“Say what you have to say and stop being annoying.”

Sam doesn’t answer, she only shrugs her shoulder and takes a sip of her drink, smile still in place. Maybe she shouldn’t have invited her friend to come along.

“We are going to Hamunaptra!”

The startling voice comes from a table on the terrace and is definitely familiar to Lena’s ear. It’s her companions’ friend who looks naïve enough to believe the Earth is flat. He’s seated with at least three other men, and it looks like they are playing poker or another gambling game.

“These are definitely Americans,” notes Sam to Lena's displeasure.

She had met a multitude of these Americans adventurers through her many adventures, and they were all the same, eager to find foreign treasures they could claim as their own without care about the consequences. She had had beef with some of them, but none that were on this ship. Now, while she doesn’t have any clash with them, it doesn’t mean she wants these American in her business.

“I’ll be right back.”

Lena stands up, abandoning reluctantly her alcoholic beverage and smoothing over the font of her pants before joining the other table. Appearances mattered more than people thought in these settings. 

“What are you up to, John?” asks Lena, laying a heavy hand on the boy’s shoulder, compressing the muscle there.

“John? I’m Winn,” splutters the newly named individual.

“Yeah, whatever, who are your friends?”

“I just met them actually, they are looking for Hamunaptra too!”

“Are they now?” rhetorically asks Lena, eyebrow raised.

“We are,” answers one smug looking man with a growing beard. “But seat and play a game with us, see if you’re a good player. We could talk about Hamunaptra for a bit too…”

“I’ll pass. I only gamble with my life, never my money.”

“Never? What if I were to bet five hundred dollars says we get to Hamunaptra before you?”

Lena returns the man’s gaze, disgust rising at the back of her throat. He’s full of unjustified confidence, dripping with cockiness and certainty. But Lena has never been the one to back down on a challenge, she isn’t used to losing against anyone and it will not start tonight.

“You’re on.”

“What makes you so confident, ma’am?” asks one of the cocky man’s partner. He’s seated on a table nearby, calmly smoking narghile while a book lies on his lap. His hairs are covered by a red skullcap and a monocle cover his left eye. He stands out from the Americans by his manners and clothes, leading Lena to believe he’s actually a local, maybe the one they should keep an eye out for the most.

“What makes _you_?”

“We actually have a man who’s been there,” responds the unnerving man, teeth showing in a smile.

“What a coincidence we-”

Winn’s words die in his mouth as his shoulder is “accidentally” crushed under Lena’s hand.

“- we, nothing actually. What were we talking about? Game! Yes, let’s play another round.”

“Well, it was a pleasure meeting you gentlemen, but I actually have to go,” politely says Lena before taking her leave, but not without one last press on Winn’s shoulder.

The men politely nod at her dismissal as she joins Sam once again. Three empty drinks lay before her friend, including her previously unfinished one, but she doesn’t have the will to comment on it. Lena heavily seats, waving a hand through the smoke of Sam’s cigarette, staring at the calm waters over the boat railing.

“That bad, huh?” 

“So fucking bad,” tiredly responds Lena, hoping the night will not bring any other surprises.

Kara’s reading on the deck of the barge, quietly listening to the sound of the passing river when Lena enters her vicinity again. She had been careful as to avoid the woman during the afternoon. Turned out it hadn’t been necessary as Lena had spent all day in her cabin working on “business things” according to Sam. Kara also tried to lose Sam but the woman was everywhere, attending to their every need and she had a very unpleasant encounter with the warden too. Apparently, he wanted to monitor his investment, but ulterior motives were obviously involved.

After this meeting Kara didn’t want to be left alone, but Winn needed his dose of social interactions and Alex had found the bar too quickly for Kara to do anything to stop her. So, there she is, pretending she didn’t notice her travelling companion.

It lasts approximately five seconds before Lena unfolds her gunnysack on the small table before Kara, consequently startling her. It’s filled with guns, knives, bullets and other dangerous weapons.

“Sorry, didn’t mean to scare you,” starts Lena in way of greeting, but she doesn’t look remorseful for one bit. She looks rather smug, actually.

“The only thing that scares me are your manners.”

Lena raises an eyebrow at this, as if she wasn’t expecting Kara to bite back, but there is a lot she doesn’t know about her one being she doesn’t enjoy being messed up with.

“Still angry about the kiss?”

“If you can call this a kiss,” scoffs Kara looking away, but her reddening face reduces her boldness, so she bothers herself by observing Lena’s arsenal.

It’s neatly arranged, conveniently so Kara supposes, as to not lose anytime during fights. A massive elephant gun stands out of the lot and it’s obvious it’s one of Lena’s favorite, probably along the two guns she’s constantly wearing. The adventurer hides them, but Kara could discern their shapes on Lena’s back, don’t ask her what she was looking for.

Sticks of dynamite are also packed, and it makes Kara wonders just how dangerous it was for Lena and the Legionnaires to get to Hamunaptra the first time. She certainly hopes they won’t have the same reception.

Lena’s observing her silently, waiting, urging her to ask the questions she knows are at the tip of her tongue. She infuriates herself sometimes by how much curiosity she has in her.

“Are we going into battle? Did I miss something?”

Lena looks slightly disappointed by her question and Kara tries to not let it gets to her. The woman starts dismantling her guns, and Kara believes she’s lost her chance.

“The last time I was at that place everybody I was with died,” starts Lena staring ahead of her and robotically cleaning the different pieces of her guns. “There’s something out there, something under that sand.”

“Well, of course, I’m hoping to find a special artifact there, a book actually. My sister thinks there is a treasure, but nobody really knows,” explains Kara and Lena still looks disappointed or maybe just thoughtful. Either way, it pushes Kara to continue. “What do you think is out there?”

“Evil.” Lena shifts her green eyes to Kara, provoking chill all over her body. There is nothing warm or inviting about those eyes. “The Tuaregs and the Bedouin believe the city is cursed, they call it ‘the doorway to hell’.”

“‘Passageway to the underworld’, actually,” corrects Kara with a smile as Lena sits in front of her, reassembling her guns. “But I don’t believe in fairy tales and hokum, Ms. Luthor. However, I do believe that one of the most famous books in history is buried out there… The Book of The Living. It’s what draws me to Egypt in the first place as a child, honestly. This is the reason I’m here, it’s kind of life’s pursuit.”

“And the fact that it’s said to be made out of pure gold doesn’t matter to you, right?” absentmindedly asks Lena, guns finally assembled.

“You know your history.”

“Well, don’t act so surprised,” laughs Lena. “I always know my treasure.”

“Well, it was nice talking to you, but I have to get back to my sister. I’ll see you later?”

Lena only hums, busy folding her gunnysack, losing once again interest in Kara’s doings. She should leave then, go back to her room and wait for Alex to sober up a bit, but she still has a question at the tip of her tongue. One only Lena Luthor will answer to.

“By the way… Why did you kiss me?” asks Kara as matter of fact as she can, but it sounds too nervous to her ears.

“I was about to be hanged,” shrugs Lena, gathering her thing to leave and then, smiling at Kara amused, “it seemed like a good idea; to have a little fun for the last time, you know.”

It’s not the right answer, Kara doesn’t know what it is, but it’s definitely not what she wanted to hear. And what did she want to hear in the first place? _Idiot_. She has nothing else to say to this foul character and so she storms out, unconsciously wishing to be followed.

Lena stares at Kara’s retreating form, wondering what she did wrong. She had been honest; she _was_ about to be hanged, and she wasn’t about to leave this world with the taste of this nasty prison on her lips. Plus, this Kara Danvers was a fine lady, one of the finest she had ever encounter but also a stuck up one. At least that’s what she thought thirty minutes ago. Since then she had shown a bit of a temperament and Lena will dig a little. The mission looks compromised though, as she had apparently once again misused her words.

Snickers alert Lena of another presence on the deck. It comes from behind a pile of merchants’ boxes, and she’s on her feet in a matter of seconds. What she finds behind those boxes is the man she wished to never see again in her life. Mike is hunched up in the corner, hand over his mouth, looking like the shitty person who he is. Lena is quick to grab him by the collar, pressing him onto the nearest wall, forearm compressing his chest.

“Lena! My friend, what an agreeable surprise!” squirms Mike, struggling to breathe.

“Why isn’t it my dear buddy Mike! I’m about to kill you.” Lena’s knife finds its place under Mike’s throat, who emits the most pathetic yelp Lena has ever heard. But to Lena’s surprise, it’s a smile that follows his pained expression.

“I see you’re still no good with the ladies, Luthor.”

“So, you’re the one leading the Americans,” concludes Lena, ignoring Mike's irrelevant comment. “I should’ve figured… Are you going to leave them to die in the middle of the desert at the first opportunity?”

“Unfortunately, no. These Americans are smart, they only payed me half of the amount. The rest will be given to me upon arrival at Cairo…”

Lena pulls the knife away; she doesn’t like the man, but she knows he’s not happy to go back either. What they had seen there, the journey made to get to this city linked them together forever as much as Lena hated it.

“Tell me, why are you going back? You never believed in Hamunaptra and the devil himself lives out there.”

“It’s a favor,” mumbles Lena, casting a discreet glance at Kara who’s feeding camels on the barge for some reason. “She saved my life, it’s the least I could do, keep her out of trouble… Anyway, let’s get us even, shall we?”

“Even?”

Lena gives him one last smirk before chucking him over the railings into the river. A flow of curse words escapes her ex-companion mouth, but she doesn’t care about him anymore. She grabs her gunny sack ready to leave and dream of Mike eaten by crocodiles when she notices wet footprints heading down the deck. Lena looks over at Mike again, making sure the asshole is still in the water, and realizes illegal passengers have made their way on board.

Cabins on the barge are strangely nice and spacious. The walls are covered in out-of-date wallpapers, the room illuminated by a beautiful chandelier, and she even has a sofa! The bed is tiny, she’d have to concede, and the sink a bit too close to it, but it’s better than what she was expecting. The temperature is cool and the evening strangely peaceful, only disturbed by the small noises coming from the forests they are floating along. It’s so calm that she’s unable to occupy her thoughts, to forget the damn kiss. Which apparently didn’t mean a thing. She doesn’t understand this sudden obsession; she hadn’t thought about it twice after leaving the prison well. Maybe she thought about it once, but that was it. Then, she saw her again at the port and she wasn’t what she was supposed to be in Kara’s mind! She was supposed to be scruffy, rude—that she was—and maybe a bit more cleaned up, but not _this_! A woman who could put any woman’s beauty to shame, an individual closer to a goddess than a simple mortal! She should have been what Kara wanted her to be but, _of course_ , she wasn’t and now she kept thinking about the ‘insignificant’ moment they shared.

It coats her mind, makes it foggy with unwanted thoughts, but not enough for Kara not to notice the fully opened window of her cabin in the reflection of her mirror. She had partially closed it earlier, as to avoid an invasion of mosquitos, and it definitely wasn’t the wind doings. She’s about to turn around when a man with face tattoos and dark clothing appears behind her. He grabs her right shoulder in a swift movement, her back hitting painfully the wall of her cabin. She barely has the time to react before a knife is hardly pressed on her throat.

“Where is the map?” asks the man with a thick accent.

Kara dares to gulp and glances down at the map laying on a table, partially lit by a dying candle.

“And the key? Where is it?”

“The key? I- I don’t know what you are talking about.”

Her attacker frowns, knife pushing harder against her skin. He’s losing patience, but Kara truly doesn’t know a thing about any key.

“Fine. I’ll find it myself,” annonces the invader, a slow grin forming on his face.

Kara knows what it means, it’s the moment she dies! Fortunately, the door of her bedroom is burst open and Kara uses the distraction to hit the man with her knee and runs toward the exit. Lena is there, two guns in hand, looking slightly impressed by her defense, but then she’s shooting at her attacker. Kara is in the hallway in a minute, knocking urgently at Alex’s door, but there is no response. Fear is nagging at her as more and more shots are fired. She can picture the furniture being destroyed and Lena hopefully having the upper hand. The latter emerges out of the room at last, with fire licking her boots. She grabs Kara by the arm without another word, leading her out of the cabins.

“But my sister-”

“She’s with Sam, don’t worry,” cuts Lena, carefully looking at every corner.

“And the map?!”

“Relax, I’m the map!”

“And who was this man? Do you know him?” continues to press Kara, displeased at Lena’s answers.

“Of course not!” exclaims Lena, turning slightly around to glare at Kara. “Plus, they were two of them. One came at the window shooting a lantern like an idiot, leading to the fire. Now let’s get the hell out of here.”

They come up onto the deck, behind the paddock, with Lena maintaining Kara behind her, one hand reflexively positioned on her tight. It’s the apocalypse up there, people are screaming for their lives, bumping into each other and then shouting once more. There are so many people that Lena’s visibility is close to none, allowing a bullet to lodge itself way too close to her head, blowing off the wall. Lena automatically pivots, charging at the shooter: it’s another man in black positioned on the other side of the paddock. Two bullets hit him square in the chest and she’s able to shoot another one up on one of the barge’s balcony before leading them through the crowd. The shootings have chattered most of the lantern starting an untamable fire; they needed to evacuate the barge.

“Can you swim?” urgently asks Lena, mind already made up.

“Well, of course I can swim! I mean, if the occasion calls for it.”

“Great!”

Lena gathers Kara in her arms, bridal style, throwing her into the water.

“What the hell?!”

Alex is running toward them, Sam hot on her heals with a rifle in hands.

“Get in the waters, we need to evacuate and quick!”

“Don’t you dare throw me like you did with my sister,” warns Alex, teeth grinding together.

“Why would I? Aren’t you a grown ass woman?”

Sam laughs at Lena’s questionable humor while Alex only flips her off, splashing into the water.

“I didn’t find Winn.” Sam informs Lena, worried. “The last time I saw him he was talking with the Americans…”

“I’ll get him,” grouches Lena. “Get our friends to the bank safely.”

Sam nods and dives gracefully in the river. Lena loads back her gun and starts running toward the terrace where she thinks Winn is. She finds the Americans crouch behind a row of boxes, bottles of beer in hands, firing and screaming like cowboys, but Winn is nowhere to be seen.

“He went back to his room,” screams at her the local with the Americans.

“Thanks!”

Lena retraces her steps and prays Winn had the intelligence to leave the cabins when the shots were heard, otherwise she’ll find his carbonated body. When she arrives in front of the staircases leading to the rooms, it’s completely burned down, thick cloud of dark smoke escapes the doorway. Even from her position the air is hard to breathe and Lena knows nobody could have survived down here.

“Lena! What are you doing here we need to leave!”

Winn is behind her, waving frantically at her, hair covered in black and the strange box in one hand. She lets out a sigh of relief as she joins him. He has no weapons, looks like he’s stunned and barely standing, it truly is a miracle that this man is alive. She pats him on the back and offers him her hand with a smile. He is a stupid man, but maybe she can bear with him a little longer. Lena fires one last bullet before pulling Winn and herself in the water.

She has to drag him to the bank as he doesn’t know how to swim. Sam, Kara, Alex and the damn warden are already there, staring at the burning barge with strange fascination. Lena lays Winn on the sand, letting him catch his breath as she joins Sam briefly checking on Kara and Alex.

“Who were these men?”

“I don’t fucking know Sam… But they are awfully interested in what we have.”

“Could they be people from your last journey?” asks Sam, wringing the front of her shirt.

“Maybe… I mean, now that you mention it, I saw some men clad in black as I was leaving the city.”

“It would make sense, they-”

“Hey, Luthor! Looks to me like I got all the horses!”

The ridiculous line comes from Mike, who’s on the other side of the shore with the rest of the passengers, including the Americans. He looks smug in his wet clothes and ridiculous smile.

“Hey, Mike! Looks to me like you are on the wrong side of the river!”

“ _Fuck_.”

Lena turns around with a bright smile, bowing in front of her partners as if she had just finished a representation. Sam claps loudly joined by Winn and even whistles into the night whereas Kara gifts her a small laugh which makes her feel weirdly warm. Alex and the warden only roll their eyes, but every great artist has their lot of detractors.

“Thank you, thank you. Now, let’s get going we still have a long way to go and I refuse to lose to these repulsive Americans.”

“Hamunaptra, here we go!” shouts Winn with the biggest smile Lena has ever seen, and she doesn’t even feel the need to crush his spirit. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just wanted to thank you sincerely for the overwhelming amount of support I got for the first chapter of this fic. I absolutely love this movie and I had been thinking about this AU for a while so seeing so many of you liking it really warmed my heart. 
> 
> I wish you all the best for 2021 and I hope you'll get to achieve every goals you set for yourself. Please remember that you're enough  
> & to take things at your own pace. Take care, love you all. <3
> 
> [i'm @debvors on twitter & tumblr]


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